Resolutions and What Not

Hi Everybody!

I'm totally late on all of these New Year's posts... but whatever. While I didn't exactly accomplish all of my resolutions last year, I didn't fail miserably either. So here's my resolutions for 2013...

FREAKING DRIVING

Seriously, I need to get over this driving thing yesterday. It's really frustrating. Time for this buttercup to suck it up and drive to some places.

DESIGN ALL THE THINGS! 

I'd love to expand my freelance horizons. I'm still working on setting up an online shop. Crippie's gotta hustle and make some money ;)

BLOG REGULARLY AGAIN, FOR REALZ

I have every intention of getting back to blogging every day. I'd also like to spruce up the place a little. I was thinking of doing theme days like "Music Monday". I dunno... what do you guys think? Anything you wanna see? And I plan to add a crap ton of adorable animal pictures :D

SOCIAL LIFE! FIND ONE!

Pretty much self explanatory... a social life would be loverly

That's pretty much it... I don't think I'm being unrealistic... we'll find out. In the meantime, I need to get to bed!

Crippie's Tippie - Be realistic when setting goals, otherwise you'll just feel like a failure

Everyone Remain Calm!

Yo!




We've got a nifty design related prompt today! But first, the Jew song of the day. Today's song comes from one of Crippie's favorite animated movies ever, "The Prince Of Egypt". Seriously, Crippie loves this movie, apart from the whole "Jew" thing the animation is gorgeous and the music is fantastic. I'll probably be posting more songs from the movie as the week goes on so I figured I'd start with the opening number. It sets the story up brilliantly IMO.
Moving on to cripple business, today's HAWMC blog prompt is super nifty. Keep calm and carry on. Write (and create) your own Keep Calm and Carry On poster. Can you make it about your condition?
For those who don't know "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters were released in 1939 by the British government in an attempt to boost morale as WWII was starting. Over the past several years the posters have made a major comeback in the design and internet worlds. Now there are countless variations to the original poster. You can even go to a website like THIS and generate your own.
As for my poster, I didn't want to make it about my disorder in general. I don't think "Keep Calm and Tumor On" would be terribly entertaining or catchy for that matter, so instead I opted to make a poster for ALL THE CRIPPLES. VOILA!!!!

See, totally awesome and catchy! Fellow cripples, go forth and be awesomely crippled, and as always, keep calm.

Crippie's Tippie - Own your crippledness, people are less likely to treat you like a fragile little handicapped person if you are totally awesome and confident 

NHBPM- PRETTY COLORS

Yo!

I'm 2/3rds of the way finished with NHBPM... YAY ME. Today's prompt seems pretty nifty... Ekphrasis post. Ekphrasis (writing about another art form) – Find a Flickr Image in Creative Commons that inspires you in some way (positively or negatively) and free write about it. Give yourself exactly 15 minutes to write without stopping. Don’t think! Brave bonus: Publish to your blog without editing! (You can include a disclaimer)


Alrighty, I'm not terribly good at writing without stopping. So I'm gonna post some pictures by one of my favorite artists of all time, Matt Lyon. Prepare to behold the awesome!

Told ya they were awesome. Whenever I need design inspiration or just a little boost of "teh happiez" Matt Lyon's work is there. It's bold, colorful, organic, full of texture and pattern gotta love the pattern, and just beautiful overall. I'm relatively sure that I've mentioned in prior posts that I like to look at pretty things in order to distract myself from whatever ugly things are going on in my life. I literally feel happier when I look at his artwork and typography prints. What can I say, I'm a sucker for pretty colors and typography... and I'm in heaven when he works an inspirational quote into typography pieces.

So yeah, I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to art... as long as the colors are pretty I'm good.

Crippie's Tippie - Check out www.society6.com it's filled with other up and coming artists. They also have an iPod app for backgrounds. True story, I have well over 800 pictures saved from this app.


This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J 

New Blog Design!

Hey Y'all!

I reckon that some of you might have noticed that I redesigned the blog. What can I say, I'm a graphic designer, I enjoy redesigning my blog. This time I decided to be "deep" and made a pattern that was a metaphor for the blog itself. It has pills and scars all over it, but they combine with flowers to make an ornate and beautiful pattern. So what do you guys think of the new design? Love it? Really Love it? Hate it? Indifferent?
If any of my totally awesome readers would like a blog design that matches their awesomeness feel free to email me at crippies_corner@yahoo.com.

Crippie's Tippie- If you're as inspired by patterns as I am, check out this blog! 

CRIPPIE GOT A JOBBIE

Hello!

First off, sorry for the lack of post this week. We just got our power and internet back. This past week has certainly been a challenge but we managed to keep everyone fairly sane and none of our pets died, which is a huge bonus.
Moving on to the title, CRIPPIE'S GREAT JOB HUNT HAS COME TO AN END!!! I saw a job posting a few months back that fit my requirements of
1- Being within a safe driving distance, bonus points if I can avoid a highway
2- Something that is willing to accept recent college grads
3- Something I can physically do
Naturally I applied to the position, a few months passed without hearing a peep from them so I continued on with my search. Last week, right before Irene was gonna hit this place gave a me a call and asked if I could come over for an interview. 24 hours before Irene hit I went to said interview. First off, the place is about a 20 minute drive from me with no highways... FREAKIN AWESOME. Second, it's an entry level design position... COOL! Third and most importantly, I'm qualified for the job and can totally kick butt at it. The interview went really well and they said they would call me by Tuesday if the wanted to me work for them. Over the next 2 days the area that the job is located in, as well as my area got rather flooded. The Tuesday deadline came and went, no call. I figured there would be some weather related delays seeing as how cars were floating minutes away from the office. After Thursday had past with no calls I doubted that they were gonna call at all. I was feeling kinda down about the whole "If I wasn't a cripple I would have a job right now" thing but my mom said "You're time will come". Go figure that time was the next morning when the people called asking if I would like to work for them. After calmly working out some details on the phone I proceeded to jump around my house like a babbling idiot for the remainder of the day.
So I start my first official job on Tuesday! I shall keep you guys updated on what it's like to be a cripple in the workforce. Since I have chosen the "desk-horse" job of graphic designer hopefully my disability won't get in the way more than it already has. Oh, and if you were wondering my disability didn't come up in the interview, I used a smaller standard cane than matched my outfit better than my usual forearm crutch.
Right now I am incredibly happy with how everything is going. I knew finding a job was going to be a massive challenge, and it was. It was a long, hard, and very frustrating process, but it's over now! Being a cripple, I'm used to long arduous challenges. Whether it is finding a pair a shoes that fits or finding a job I can perform it takes patients and the realization that sooner or later it will come. On the plus side, I found a job before some of my able-bodied classmates.

Crippie's Tippie- If you work hard enough, you can achieve anything.

Everything Is Going To Be OK

Hi Everybody!

I hope everybody had a good forth of July! I literally spent the day watching "The Twilight Zone" (day well spent in my opinion). Currently I am trying to wrap my mind around the Casey Anthony verdict, all I can say is I hope karma is real.

I obtained some more books with pictures in them a few days ago. One of these books was just so awesome and adorable I thought I should share it with you! "Everything Is Going To Be OK" by Chronicle Books is a book with inspirational quotes and illustrations. I love it because it mixes graphic design and optimism in a way that everyone can understand. 

Yeah, not the best quality photos but they show the book in a realistic manner. Anywhooo, I approve of this because essentially it is a bunch of motivational posters, properly designed, and bound into a book that I can look at whenever my little heart desires.

Crippie's Tippie- Try to stay positive and optimistic. You'd be surprised at how much better you feel. 

Raising Cane: The Exhibit

Salutations!

I had my very first exhibition on Saturday and it really was wonderful. The general consensus amongst the people viewing it was that it needs to become a real business, I'm definitely going look into making that happen. As promised, here are some photos of the final exhibit.

Here is my book (which you can purchase HERE) as well as some postcards and business cards I designed for the show.

The sign changed quite a bit for the actual show, I am a fan of the color.

I decorated my wheelchair and used it as a stand for some kick-ass child's crutches.











The exhibit as a whole... TA-DA!

I really am thrilled with how the whole experience turned out. Now I pose a question to my readers... if I were to make these canes into some form of company do you think they'd be successful?

Crippie's Tippie- Make the best out of your situation. I've turned a painful and lifelong disability into a very successful senior project. There is no point in sitting around and complaining about the bad stuff in your life, get up and try to make something good out of it.

Raising The Canes

Greetings!

Today was my Raising Cane BFA exhibit! Sorry I wasn't able to post progress shots, but chronic fatigue and setting up an installation don't leave much time for blogging. I figured I'd post the progress shots now (better late than never... right?)

Me being happy with the progress.









It's not that I don't trust people... it's that I just don't trust people.














14 FOOT SCAFFOLDING!!! I wasn't able to climb it, but this is when friends and family come in handy.

I am very lucky to have friends and relatives that are willing to conquer their fears of heights for me!

The final product on the end of day one, it ended up changing quite a bit, but still. This was the beginning of my installation.

I will post more pictures of the actually exhibit when I upload them to my computer. Tonight I feel like relaxing and watching stupid things on the internet.

Now, in addition to making the canes, I also wrote a book. The book focused on my reasons behind the project, my experiences with using mobility aids, and how I physically did my project. I have some exciting news... my book is available for purchase (and in PDF form for the eco-concious among us)!!! The book can be obtained HERE.

Crippie's Tippie- BUY MY BOOK... lol just kidding. My real tippie is try not to be ashamed about asking for help. I know it sucks when you can't physically do something, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The Importance of Being Quirky

Oh hai,

I promised good news and good news I shall deliver. A few weeks ago Quirk Classics (they publish books like "Pride, Prejudice,  and Zombies") had a contest for artists to came up with their own book idea and cover. I came up with "The Importance of Being Earnest and a Pirate", and go figure... I'M A RUNNER UP! Check out all of the entries here! Congrats to the winner to the other runners up, Y'ALL ROCK! For good measure, here's my entry.

Now, why I am mentioning this? Apart from the fact that I am uber excited about it, humor has been a way for me to cope with my illness for a very long time. In other words, my disability helped me develop a sense of humor, my sense of humor helped me make a kick-ass entry, and thus my kick ass entry is picked as a runner up! While my crippled-ness causes many problems in my life, the perks make it sooooooooooo much more manageable.

Oh and BTW, if anyone has any legit questions to ask me about being a cripple, post a comment. Chances are I'll answer it.


Crippie's Tippie of the Day- If ya got it... flaunt it.

Designer Wheelchair? Count Me In!!!

Whuzzup (I figured I'd spice up my greeting)

So while I was at the SPD portfolio event Monday I obtained some free magazines. One of said magazines was "Metropolis" magazine. While skimming through it I found a most interesting article about a Norwegian company Krabat. Krabat makes designer wheelchairs, not just any designer wheelchairs though... they make them specifically for children! I had to use a wheelchair as I child and I cannot even begin to describe how excited I was to see this. This wheelchairs not only look freakin' awesome, but they promote activity and health (they improve your posture, which can suffer with a normal wheelchair). Check out the article here.
Take a look at this thing and try to tell me it's not awesome!

It is so important for kids with disabilities to feel good about themselves. I'll go into detail later about what I'm doing with this cause, but for now... THIS WHEELCHAIR ROCKS MY WORLD!!!

Crippie's Tippie of the Day- Necessary doesn't have to mean ugly 

If You Can't Fly...

Salutations,

Yesterday I had a rather eventful day. I attended "SPD's March Madness Portfolio Review and Seminar" in NYC. I had an awesome time, and no one said my portfolio sucked. If you want to see my portfolio btw you can click HERE. While I did have an awesome time, due to my disability special considerations had to be made.

How "Normal" person would have attended this event...
1) Obtain a ride to the train station
2) Take the subway
3) Walk to the event
4) Enjoy said event
5) Repeat 3,2, and 1

Unfortunately, that wouldn't work for me. Apart from the fact that I have chronic fatigue and wouldn't have been able to walk from the train station to the event. I also cannot go on the subway, the vibrations from the cars travel up my legs and it hurts. So I had to go about this in a slightly different manner.

1) Obtain a ride to the event itself
2) Have a bunch of coffee because I wouldn't be able to stay focused otherwise
3) Enjoy said event
4) Obtain a ride back and fall asleep in the car

So, it's not what my peers would have done, but I least I went. Just goes to show you, as long as the destination is the same, who gives a crap it the journey is different.

Crippie's Tippie of the Day- If you want to do something, find a way to do it.

Crippie's Introductory Blog Post

Greetings and Salutations!


My name is Nicole. I am very close to completing my degree in graphic design. As the title of my blog suggests, I am disabled. Over the next couple of months I will be trying to make my way through the world, attempting to get a job and all the fun things revolving around growing up. Regardless of who you are, the transition from college to the real world is not an easy one. I have the additional burden of a major disability on my shoulders. This blog will be about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs I experience as I try to overcome my illness and become a productive member of society.


And yes, I am fully aware of how calling myself "Crippie" might be considered offensive. To me, calling myself a borderline offensive term is a way of rising above my situation. I don't let the word cripple bother me. Actually, the word cripple is starting to lose its offensive power in my opinion.


Crippie's Tippie of the Day: Just because I am comfortable with the word "cripple" that doesn't mean that everyone with a physical challenge is. If you are gonna call someone a cripple, I would recommend saving it for your crippled friends that have a sense of humor.